Scavenger Hunt

Our class was separated into groups to travel around campus looking for a list of objects to find and take a picture of for uploading.  These pictures are used in Picasa and Google Presentation as forms of viewing and organizing pictures.  The hunt was fun and nice to get moving.  Our topic was to find objects in the real world starting with the letters A-L.  Many of the letters were easy to find.  "I" was the hardest object to seek out on campus.  We worked well as a team and got a picture of every letter.  I could use scavenger hunts within my classroom as well.  It makes learning exciting and an exercise.  The hunt allows students to release energy and use their head to discover the object in which they are looking for.  Next time I participate in a scavenger hunt I will try and find better pictures.  We were on a time limit and were unable to get the best pictures possible. The transfer of pictures from the camera to the computer was a very easy process.  We then had to resize, change resolution, and change the file name.  We organized these photos into a folder named hunt.  This allows for all the pictures to be together in the same area and easier to find. We then started the rest of the activity by uploading the pictures into Picasa.

Picasa

Picasa is a great tool for picture downloads and organization.  Creating slideshows are an interesting and eye catching ability for everyone.   These slideshows can be uploaded and embedded onto blogs, wikis, or other sites.  Making sure the availability to view the show is on public instead of private is very important.  We posted our slideshow onto our blog and used the same pictures to create a powerpoint in Google Presentation.

Scavenger Hunt Using Google Presentation

Google Presentation is a great tool that one can access from any computer.  This site makes available to the user to make a powerpoint presentations.  This site is very easy to use, especially for people who have made a powerpoint before.  Everything went very smoothly from making slides and organizing them.  The only thing I wish was different is the availability of themes. There are not many to choose from that make the information stimulating.  I can use this tool in my classroom for presentations, obviously, and lectures.  Students can also use it for creating projects and such.  Next time I use Google Presentation I will make my creation more exciting and interesting.  I could include sounds or movement of some kind.  This was a pretty easy assignment, technologically speaking, for me to complete because of my extensive experience using powerpoint, but it is nice being able to access the presentation from any computer using my google username.

Overall, this whole assignment was very educational for me and my classmates.  We learned to take pictures, upload the pictures, change pictures to fit online capabilities, and shares the photos with others.  It was an exciting project with tools that I will use the rest of my career!